It took me a year or something to clue in that Froogle (the shopping search engine from Google) was a pun on “frugal.” It wasn’t til I heard someone say it out loud that it clicked. I think I was making a more visual type of mental association, with the double-oo of gOOgle dominating my interpretation.

The Young Black Stallion
Directed by Simon Wincer. (G ). Simon Wincer’s Imax film is a prequel to the classic 1979 children’s film ‘The Black Stallion,’ imagining the Arab charger of the title as a feisty colt who rescues a young girl (Biana G. Tamimi) wandering in the North African desert and later helps her grandfather (Richard Romanus)

Oh, so it’s not a pr0n film?

According to this article, in Japan they are pretty into KFC as their version of an authentic American Xmas. (Also, here).

Tags: authenticity, Japan, kfc

Automatic translation of my Museum of Foreign Groceries being blogged on the Spanish site Freakilinks

TREATS
This friki collects bought packages of a pile of guarradas in different countries from the world. Seeing all cakes, gusanitos and others that have crammed down it is not difficult to imagine the amount of cholesterol that it has to have this man.

Warning: if you’re going to visit that site, be prepared for quite a few pr0n ads

Also worth noting is their signoff in the email:
“We look forward to servicing your needs.”

Today’s Change-of-Address screwup is Verizon Wireless. I changed my address online more than two months ago. Still getting bills sent to my old address. Went to their website and verified that, yes, in fact, they DO have the correct address. Contacted customer service who told me that they have my old address in their system (when I’m staring right at the NEW address in their system). I sent them a screen grab of what I was seeing to prove it.

We received your recent e-mail notifying us of your change of address. This address has been updated, and future bills will now be mailed to your new address. If your contact numbers have changed, please email us back with the updated numbers.

Not exactly what happened (I sent them an email with the information that was already in their system), but if it does the trick, I guess that’s good enough. I can’t believe how many places I have had to go through the change process twice. Sad, really.

Tags: customer service, screwup, verizon

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FreshMeat #20 from Steve Portigal

               (__)
               (oo) Fresh
                \\/  Meat

Anecdotal evidence indicates FreshMeat causes happiness!
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Cute ideas about putting a friendly face on a brand
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Recently, I gave a presentation about conducting user
research in other countries (in this case, Japan). I
explained the phenomenon of “kawaii” (cute) – a prevalent
design aesthetic that cuts across age and gender. Most
people will recognize “Hello Kitty” as an example of
Japanese cuteness, but in North America that’s simply a
toy-like brand for young girls. In Japan, many businesses
will use a cute image as the “face” on their organization,
in order to present themselves as friendly, inviting, and
of course, non-threatening.

But kawaii is everywhere in Japan. The police use a kawaii
character as their mascot. Stores sell dustpans, tazers,
and dish brushes that are anthropomorphized with eyes and
a mouth.

Some quick examples here and here.

Anyone designing products, brands, services, etc. for the
Japanese market needs to at least be aware of kawaii,
and so I emphasized this to my audience.

One person spoke up and reminded us of the characters that
western companies created to personify their brands,
especially in the 50s and 60s. (For a great collection
of these mascots, check out the book
Meet Mr. Product: The Art of the Advertising Character).

It was a provocative comment, because in my fervor to
describe the ubiquity of kawaii imagery in Japan I had
forgotten about something similar in our own culture. Kawaii
is a powerful style of communication (and perhaps mode of
thought) in Japan, and it manifests itself in many ways,
one of which is cute characters to personify a brand, and
of course, the Japanese are not unique in putting faces on
brands. Point taken.

Later, I began thinking of other ways that we create
inviting brands in our culture, beyond the usual
tools of designing logos, retail experiences,
environments, web sites, etc. I realized that in the
shopping mall we’ve got a new, unique form of
Americana/Canadiana/etc…the pun-brand.

Just for groans, check out these names of mall stores:

My Favorite Muffin
Once In A Blue Moose
Gymboree
Northern Boarder
The Athlete’s Foot
Foot Locker
Romancing the Stone
The Stitching Post
Between the Sheets
Humphrey Yogart
Close Encounters
The Hotdogger
Zutopia
Banana Republic
Asian Chao
Bare Escentuals
Bead It!
Bubble Gun
Corda-Roys Originals
Sox Appeal
Hawa-E!
We’re Going Nuts
Deck The Walls
Pops Corn
The Nutty Bavarian
Soul To Sole
Whole Addiction
Time Zone
Finish Line
Site for Sore Eyes

Okay, take a deep breath! Starts to get a little
painful there, doesn’t it? Notice that sometimes
it’s hard to “see” the pun; when the brand has
established itself so well (i.e., Foot Locker)
it becomes a new “thing” rather than a clever
combination of words. It also seems that the
pun-brands that have been more successful are
(relatively) subtle – I don’t ever see Humphrey
Yogart going national (estate litigation aside)
because it’s just too broad. And some pun-brands
don’t work unless you already know what they are
selling (i.e., Whole Addiction is a body-piercing
concern…get it??).

Obviously, being punny is not enough. Like
any face being put on a business, a thoughtful
approach that is executed well and considers the
audience is essential. The Foot Locker brand
consists of more than the name, and it all
works in harmony. And let’s not forget the
Foot Locker mascot, called The Striper! (see
him here)

–

A great article about kawaii can be found here and there are a ton of kawaii links here.

–

Nice piece on visual puns in advertising is here.

Tags: America, branding, business, freshmeat, Japan, kawaii, names, pun, retail, shopping mall, stores, USA

Latest issue of FreshMeat is out.

Kawaii is everywhere in Japan. The police use a kawaii character as their mascot. Stores sell dustpans, tazers, and dish brushes that are anthropomorphized with eyes and a mouth.

YANK magazine is not a magazine about America

Australian paper’s rundown of Saddam’s environs

In the hut, Hussein slept in a bedroom screened by a dirty yellow scrap of curtain, surrounded by fly spray cans and insect repellent creams. About 20 Arabic books were on a small bookshelf, including a translation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. At the back was a small closet-size toilet and a shower.
But despite months on the run, Hussein continued to pay attention to his personal hygiene. On top of the fridge lay a lavender-scented vanity bag and a bottle of moisturising cream, next to a bottle of Lacoste Pour Homme cologne and a canister of minted toothpicks.
The bedroom was filled with men’s clothes, including new shirts and socks still in their wrappers, suggesting Hussein had shopped recently. A gold-plated mirror hung in a corner.

Especially interesting because the US news channels are taking a strange glee in describing the disgusting squalor and bad personal care of the place he was hiding, with galling moral twist, that for someone who was once so powerful to be living so poorly he must really truly be a bad person. Seemingly ignoring the fact that we know he was a mass-murderer, and that he had the entire US military after him and maybe grooming wouldn’t necessarily be first on his list. It’s one of those really messed up media angles that is trying way too hard to spin something, now with extra hyperbole. Bleggcch.

Tags: evil, glee, hyperbole, irony, media, power, saddam, spin, squalor

The Empty Bowl is a blog about breakfast cereal. Not a lot of posts, but a dedicated site is an exciting concept.

Okay, if you think funny names are funny and not disrespectful, you might be as amused as I was by this.

Dirk A. Flentrop, a Dutch organ builder who influenced a generation of American counterparts in making pipe organs that play and sound like the classical Baroque instruments of Bach’s time, died at his home in Santpoort, the Netherlands, on Nov. 30, his company, Flentrop Orgelbouw, announced. He was 93.

Mr. Flentrop headed the company, which is based in Zaandam, from 1940 to 1976. He took over from his father, Hendrik Flentrop, an organist who founded the company in 1903.

Inspired by what his father had learned in restoring 17th- and 18th-century European instruments, Mr. Flentrop, who also played the organ, built hundreds of new instruments in the Netherlands and elsewhere using historical construction techniques – mechanical connections between keys and pipes, bright and clear tones, elegant wooden cases to focus sound.

His influence spread to the United States in 1958, thanks to his friend E. Power Biggs, the concert organist, whom Mr. Flentrop had guided on a tour of European Baroque organs in 1954.

Most American pipe organs in the mid-20th century were being made with remote-control electropneumatic playing action and pipes that often imitated the sounds of the orchestra – unresponsive and heavy sounding, to Mr. Biggs’s ears. He ordered an organ from Mr. Flentrop and in 1958 got permission to install it in Adolphus Busch Hall at Harvard University.

The Flentrop organ in Busch Hall, still frequently heard in concerts, became, in the words of the organ historian Jonathan Ambrosino, “the beacon of a new age.”

Mr. Biggs’s recordings on it, and his fervent advocacy of designing pipe organs along classical lines, brought scores of orders for Mr. Flentrop over the next 20 years from American churches and universities. Among the places where he installed notable instruments are St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, the conservatory at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and the Duke University chapel in Durham, N.C.

His instruments helped inspire such American builders as Charles B. Fisk, John Brombaugh and Fritz Noack and their followers to return to traditional methods.

The Flentrop company, now directed by Cees van Oostenbrugge, observed its 100th anniversary this year.

Mr. Flentrop is survived by his wife, Cynthia Flentrop-Turner; a daughter, Agaath Leeuwerik-Flentrop; and three grandchildren.

Tags: humor, names

Spider Hole? What the hell is a Spider Hole?

Camelon, touted as CLOTHING OF THE FUTURE – IN THE PRESENT is a multi-purpose garment that comes from the Renaissance Faire/SCA community. An interesting piece of clothing design, through pulling some drawstrings etc. you can convert into four different dresses, two skirts, pants, shirts, shorts, capes, a poncho, a tunic, a handbag, a hauling bag, sleeping bag, or a pillow. Aesthetically, I thought the future stopped looking like the past around the time of 2112, but perhaps that’s just me.

Also, be sure to check out the Cameleon aka Bill’s Pants video on this page.

Thanks, Connie!

Tags: 2112, camelon, clothing, fashion, future, rush

This week I was visiting a big, famous Silicon Valley Internet company. While in the lobby, I heard the receptionist on the phone: “I’m sorry, Mr. Potato Head isn’t available from 2:00 to 3:00.”

I took a moment but soon realized that she was referring to a meeting room, not a person.